Liam McLeod and Chris Burke react to controversy in first half of Rangers v Malmo
Rangers felt as though they should have had a penalty in the first half of their Champions League qualifier against Malmo in Sweden on Tuesday.
Ryan Kent was brought down on the edge of the penalty area by Malmo’s Lasse Nielsen, with the home side ending up getting their own free-kick out of the incident.
BBC Radio Scotland commentator Liam McLeod felt as though the challenge may have happened just outside the penalty area by Kent and Steven Gerrard clearly felt otherwise [Scottish Sun].
In the BBC studio on Tuesday, ex-Gers defender Richard Foster seemed to think it was not a penalty but Chris Burke did.
“Chris Burke says penalty, in the background,” said McLeod on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportscene during the first half of their coverage on Tuesday night.
“Kent’s gone to ground, the referee’s not interested.”
Co-commentator Burke then chipping in to say: “He’s given a free-kick for that and not a penalty?”
McLeod continued: “Malmo have a free-kick just after Ryan Kent went down, was he just over the line? He’s just outside the [area].
“If it’s a foul, it’s a free-kick because it’s not inside the box.”
Burke then said: “It’s great defending.
“You can see the reaction of the defender, he looked at the referee straight away in panic.”
McLeod then finished by saying: “It’s really shocking me that the defender agrees with the decision and the attacking winger doesn’t, in the studio here.”
No penalty
It was a close one but ultimately, Rangers didn’t manage to get a spot-kick that James Tavernier would have no doubt scored.
With away goals now a thing of the past, getting a goal in Sweden is not as valuable as it once was but it would have been amazing to have grabbed a goal in the first half.
Kent has cased all sorts of issues against Malmo so far with Gerrard’s team going in at the break perhaps as the better team.
Malmo’s defenders have found it hard to deal with Kent’s pace, ability to find space and his close ball control so hopefully, that’s something the Light Blues continue to expose.
Overall, we’re happy with how things are going – even though we should have probably had a penalty or at the very least a free-kick on the edge of the box.
We’ll have worse controversies than this over the course of the season, especially with the standard of refereeing in Scotland.
In other Rangers news, fans are urging Gerrard to sign this player after a major development at the weekend.